"What are these things!" Qin Mu's eyes widened in disbelief. The two round spheres had instantly transformed into two puppets roughly the size of human figures. However, considering his Heavenly Mystery Tower, which could store so many things, he calmed down. After all, this was a magical world, and the appearance of Pokémon wasn't surprising.
"The Mo family's mechanical arts use the hardest wood, inscribed with Daoist patterns, and are crafted using secret methods. They are not only incredibly powerful but also immune to the protection of true qi. Apart from being a bit slow, they have almost no drawbacks," Xiangli Yanran explained.
Before Xiangfu Ling stopped, two more dark, round balls appeared in his hand and were thrown to the ground. With a series of cracking sounds, the two iron men stood up.
"This is a mechanical puppet, made of black iron and mithril, indestructible and difficult to destroy except by divine weapons. The key is that it can be imprinted with divine sense, making it easy to command and its movements are not affected by the material, making it even more flexible than wooden puppets," Xiangli Yanran said with a serious expression.
"So powerful! How can we possibly beat them?" Qin Mu frowned and said worriedly.
“It is indeed difficult to fight. This should be a treasure passed down from the Xiang family’s ancestors. I don’t know how he brought it out.” Xiangli Yanran nodded.
"So there aren't many of these?"
“Of course not many. Not to mention the difficulty in finding the materials, the production conditions are also very demanding,” Xiangli Yanran said, her eyes wide.
"What's the strength of this thing?" Qin Mu asked curiously.
"In terms of strength, they're about the same as a mid-level martial general, but because they lack blood energy or true qi, they're slightly weaker than a true mid-level martial general. However, for us, they're all beings we can't defeat," Xiangli Yanran explained.
"Isn't Miss Huang doomed to lose?" Qin Yue exclaimed in astonishment.
"Not necessarily. Driving mechanical puppets isn't that easy. Judging from this guy's strength, it's about the same as ours. These two puppets are more for defense," Xiangli Yanran said, shaking her head.
"That won't work either. If he does that, he'll be in an invincible position. Miss Huang will be no different from losing!" Qin Yue said anxiously.
Qin Zai has already lost a round. If Huang Yuqi loses too, they won't have to continue this unlimited duel.
"Since Sister Yuqi dared to go up there, she must have her own methods. Just watch," Xiangli Yanran said uncertainly.
"Are you just hoping Yuqi loses? Can't you think of something better?" Qin Yue glared at him. Qin Yue's words were truly demoralizing.
"Uh!" Qin Yue hurriedly shook his head, then covered his mouth, pointed ahead, and gestured for people to look, because Huang Yuqi had also made her move.
She took out a box from her sleeve, opened it gently, and several objects rolled out of it. After landing, they turned into puppets, but unlike the others, her puppets were not human-shaped.
This made things interesting; a group of puppets were fighting, making loud banging noises.
Seeing Huang Yuqi's response, Xiang Fuling frowned. He hadn't expected to encounter a fellow expert. Although the two mechanical puppets were powerful, they weren't his own; controlling them required immense mental strength. If he couldn't win quickly by controlling the mechanical puppets to attack, he would only have one option: to concede defeat.
Wooden puppets are not easy to make, so there aren't many of them. Now he's more worried about Huang Yuqi. If Huang Yuqi has more puppets, he might really have to use mechanical puppets.
Things often take a turn for the worse. Huang Yuqi showed him what a true tycoon was, opening box after box until sixteen puppets appeared. He had only thrown out ten, and those were all the puppets he had.
Most importantly, he discovered that Huang Yuqi's puppets actually knew how to cooperate, and quickly beat his puppets until they were missing limbs.
With a gloomy face, Xiang Fuling commanded his mechanical puppet to step forward and block Huang Yuqi's puppet, punching it repeatedly and creating large craters.
Seeing that this couldn't go on, and that the wooden puppet would eventually be destroyed by the mechanical puppet, Huang Yuqi raised an eyebrow, took out a box from her sleeve, hesitated for a moment, and then carefully opened it.
Judging from her sleeves, they couldn't possibly hold that many things. Qin Mu guessed that she, like himself, also possessed treasures with a spatial dimension.
When Huang Yuqi opened the box, she found two puppets that resembled neither cows nor horses, each a full two meters tall and over three meters long. The puppets bore marks from swords and knives, indicating they had been through many battles.
Huang Yuqi did not stop moving. As the puppet was released, her hands moved as if playing a musical instrument, her ten fingers plucking the strings in the air.
Huang Yuqi moved her hands, and the onlookers were surprised to find that of the twenty puppets she released, two of them were large and blocked the front, while the other puppets surrounded her from other directions and attacked from the sides.
Such skillful and dexterous coordination astonished the onlookers; if it weren't for the striking difference in appearance, they would have thought it was a real person in costume.
"Wooden ox and flowing horse! This is Zhuge Liang's wooden ox and flowing horse! I never imagined they still existed in this world." Xiangli Yanran exclaimed in surprise.
"Miss Huang is a descendant of Zhuge Liang, so it's not surprising that she has wooden oxen and flowing horses, is it?" Qin Mu asked Xiangli Yanran, who was making a big fuss.
"What do you know! Of course, when Zhuge Liang set up the Empty City Stratagem, did you think it was really an empty city? One hundred and eight wooden oxen and flowing horses had already been prepared there. Zhuge Liang's puppets could coordinate battle formations, which is why Sima Yi dared not attack. It was because he discovered this."
"It's a pity that the Shu Kingdom was too weak. Although the wooden ox and flowing horse were powerful, they were completely used up in a few decades. After the fall of Shu, they were never heard of again. I never expected them to reappear today," Xiangli Yanran said excitedly.
"What's all the fuss about? Lady Wu is from the Huang family. Her father-in-law, Mr. Huang Chengyan, was not only a great Confucian scholar but also an expert in Yin-Yang numerology. It is said that he inherited the secret arts of Lu Ban. It's not surprising that Miss Huang brought out these puppets," Qin Yue exclaimed.
"Hmph! Everything else is fine, but this wooden ox and flowing horse is something that Zhuge Liang specially improved after entering Shu because the roads in Shu were narrow. You see, although this puppet is tall and long, it looks narrow, and that's the reason. If it were someone else, why would they make it like this? This must be something left behind by Zhuge Liang." Xiangli Yanran analyzed with certainty.
"Just because the puppet looks like this, you've concluded it's a relic of Zhuge Liang? Isn't that a bit arbitrary?" Qin Yue said, unconvinced.
"Although I don't know how to make puppets, wouldn't it be more impactful if the same materials were used to make them shorter and wider? Besides, these two puppets, just by looking at their charm, seem to be from a long time ago."
"Stop arguing, both of you. Whoever did it, it's Yuqi's anyway," Qin Yue said, stopping them from continuing their argument.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com